1. Good listeners, like precious gems, are to be treasured.
Walter Anderson (b.1944) U.S. writer. The Confidence Course: Seven Steps to Self-Fulfillment (1998)
2. Management and the business firm will be better served if the various fights were converted into a reconciliation process which will identify the conditions under which the respective modes become appropriate for success.
Igor Ansoff (1918-2002) U.S. author and academic. The New Corporate Strategy (1988)
3. Sometimes listening itself may not be enough-some people must be prodded if you are to find out what they’re thinking.
Mary Kay Ash (1915-2001) U.S. entrepreneur, business executive and founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics. On People Management (1984)
4. Wisdom come with talking less frivolously and listening more seriously. The latter implies a learning attitude; the former assumes an air of omniscience that does not exist.
- K. Chakraborty (b.1957) Indian academic. Management by Objectives: An Integrated Approach (1976)
5. We listen to what our employees want and it shows up in everything from the layout of our offices to the benefits and amenities.
Raul Fernandez (b.1966) Mexican IT entrepreneur. Washington (November 1999)
6. I have often heard that the outstanding msn id he who thinks deeply about a problem, and the next is he who listens carefully to advice.
Livy (59 B.C.-A.D. 17) Roman historian. History of Rome (26 B.C.-A.D. 15)
7. I think we have to lead people by being good listeners. That is to say, we lead in a company such as ours by drawing out ideas from people…We can’t simply issue commands.
Minoru Makihara (b.1930) Japanese president of Mitsubishi Corporation. Interview, Strategy + Business (Joel Kurtzman; January-March 1996)
8. In the industrial age, the CEO sat on the top of the hierarchy and didn’t have to listen to anybody…In the information age, you have to listen to the ideas of people regardless of where they are in the organization.
John Sculley (b.1939) U.S. partner of Sculley Brothers, former president of Pepsi, and C.E.O. of Apple Computers. Nation’s Business Today (1987)
